German Minister meets farmers supported by Reading research

Dr Bärbel Kofler, Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), recently met farmers in Zambia who are tackling the effects of climate change using a climate services approach developed by agricultural experts at the University of Reading.

Dr Koflermet with colleagues and beneficiaries from the Digital Climate Advice for Smallholder Farmers Project (E-PICSA), which is co-developing a new app to support farmers in dealing with and increasing their resilience to climate change related challenges.

As part of her tour of BMZ-funded projects in Eastern Province, Zambia, the German Deputy Minister saw how farmers have utilised the information and tools in the app to support their decision-making and improve their livelihoods.

The PICSA team, based at Reading’s School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, began piloting an early version of the app with agricultural field staff in Zambia and Malawi, nations that suffer from frequent droughts, dry spells, seasonal and flash floods and extreme temperatures, in September 2022. Those staff have already trained almost two thousand smallholder farmers.

The process of using the app involves each farmer considering their existing resources and activities, before working in groups to explore and analyse historical climate information, such as the amount of rain that falls in a season, when the season starts, the length of the season, and extreme events such as heavy rainfall and/or dry spells. Using this information, farmers then identify potential adaptation options and then build plans to improve yields and increase food security. Farmers are then able to access seasonal and short-term forecasts to help adapt plans and respond to weather warnings.

Dr Graham Clarkson, Senior Research Fellow in the University’s Department of International Development, said: “Working with partners all over the world, PICSA has supported hundreds of thousands of farmers to make adaptation decisions in the face of a variable and changing climate.

“While we have had success with PICSA so far, we are always looking for ways to bring the approach to larger numbers of farmers and better support the field staff who work with them. This work in Zambia and Malawi provides the opportunity to co-develop the app with farmers and agricultural field staff and ensure that it meets their needs.”